Discussion Topics for Today's Classroom

Posts Categorized: Electronic Surveillance

Source: BBC Date: September 12, 2014 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28446658 Questions for discussion: 1) Are there any “good” uses for technology that allows a person to hack into the electricity grid, or disable a wifi network? 2) Should there be regulation on the sale and purchase of hacking technologies that allow a person to access the electricity… Read more »

The naked photo you took on your phone — and deleted — is still around, somewhere. That’s the reality today because of how modern phones, tablets and laptops save your data. By default, photos and documents don’t reside on your device alone. They’re routinely “backed up to the cloud.” That means they’re quietly copied… Read more »

Discussion: China is the third most restrictive country in the world when it comes to Internet access. By using what is referred to as the Great Firewall and the Golden Shield, China controls what its citizens can see and access on the Internet. The Great Firewall limits access to foreign websites, and the Golden Shield… Read more »

Discussion: What happens to your emails and Facebook page after you die? Some states have passed legislation to allow executors access to a deceased person’s email and other digital assets, while Google has hired lobbyists to oppose it. As it stands now, the ambiguity that awaits after a person passes away has often pinned greiving… Read more »

Discussion: Foreign spies and organized criminals have access to virtually every companies’ network, which makes the issue of cyber security a national security issue. Analysts agree that cyber criminals or terrorists have the capabilities to shut down the country’s financial, energy or communications infrastructure. Much of our countries’ infrastructure is privately owned, making prevention and surveillance a… Read more »

Discussion: Micorsoft employees, along with U.S. Marshalls, raided two Web hosting companies on Friday, March 23. Microsoft’s goal was to put a hault to the over $100 million dollars that the cyber mafia has stolen over the past five years. The seized servers were the main tools that the organized crime ring used to steal the… Read more »

Discussion: In Syria, regime supporters have released computer viruses that are designed to rob information from targeted users and send it to a government-owned server. The information collected, such as user names, locations, and contact info, is then used by the regime to help fight protestors and activists in the country. This information is collected… Read more »

Discussion: The hacking group, Anonymous, has posted and distributed an audio file obtained illegally of US and UK police forces discussing legal action against hackers. The group also allegedly took down the Greek justice ministry in protest of the government’s signing of the copyright treaty and its handling of the economic crisis. The FBI is… Read more »

Discussion: The FBI is designing an application that will combine information from many different social networking sites (such as Twitter and Facebook), highlight areas of interest or security concerns, and overlay them onto a map that could hypothetically show where different threats are located. The FBI states that this is not an invasion of privacy… Read more »

Discussion: Your face is being tracked in many different ways. This article highlights six interesting and amazing ways that different technologies could be tracking your face. Facial recognition software allows companies to tailor its advertising to different customers, as well as tracking the clientele that frequent different businesses. This type of software even purports to be able… Read more »